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Monday, September 28, 2009

I noticed some interesting provisions in the healhcare reform bill (cited elsewhere). I don't have time to read all 1000+ pages of the law. Plus, each draft keeps changing. I did notice some interesting bits discussed elsewhere.

If you don't have adequate health insurance coverage, you owe tax equal to the what your health insurance premium would have been. The IRS is responsible for collecting this tax.

This sucks for a would-be agorist. If you only have off-the-books income, you're still forced to enroll in the State health insurance plan. The only solution is to claim no on-the-books income and get the State plan via welfare. If you want to see an agorist doctor, you're still forced to pay for the State plan.

That makes it hard for an agorist to fly under-the-radar. The only option is to declare no on-the-books income, while simultaneously enrolling in the State welfare plan.

This bit was also interesting. (I didn't even understand what the text was saying. Notice how the law says "Strike this sentence and add another sentence.", making it incomprehensible. This is what the other site said that provision meant.)

High-deductible policies are illegal. You can't purchase a cheap health insurance police with a high deductible. Your insurance policy must cover everything, including routine care.

That's missing the point of insurance. Insurance is supposed to be protection against disasters, and not to cover everything. "Insurance" that covers routine medical expenses isn't insurance.

This illustrates an important point about the "healthcare reform" law. The IRS will be responsible for making sure everyone has health insurance or pays the equivalent tax. "The healthcare reform law gives more power to the IRS!" is a criticism I don't hear mentioned.

I don't have time to read every draft of the healthcare reform law. I'd also have to read the laws being amended, in order to fully understand it. I doubt many Congressmen bother reading the law either. It is offensive that big laws are passed, yet almost no Congressmen actually read them first!

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

In the United Kingdom, two policewoman gave birth at about the same time. The two new mothers decided to look after each others' children.

Due to new law, the mothers were told they were running an illegal baby sitting operation and told to stop on pain of prosecution. They were also told the government may spy on them to make sure they don't look after each others' babies.

This is due to a law that states nobody can gain a "reward" from babysitting. The "reward" here was free babysitting from the other mother in exchange.

It is a fair bet this absurd law got passed because the UK Members of Parliament didn't read the law before it was passed.

One of the policewoman only earns something like 800 - 900 pounds a month. Now she has to pay something like 300 pounds a month for a babysitter. The new mother plans to claim government benefit because she can't really afford a paid babysitter on her salary.

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Here is a collection of my favorite links.

Personal Finance

For personal finance, my most frequently visited site is Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance has the best system for watching your stock quotes during the day. I also like the Motley Fool. Both of these websites encourage you to do independent thinking about finance.

My favorite discount online broker is Vanguard. They are not the cheapest commission-wise, but their customer service has been excellent. Plus, they give a high credit interest rate on the cash portion of your account.

Mises, Rothbard, and Austrian Economics

The school of "Austrian Economics" advocates credit-based money instead of debt-based money. There are two separate websites, www.mises.org and www.mises.net. These philosophies are a precursor to agorism. However, they still hold out false hope that the people who control the government can be convinced to switch to a fair monetary system. They fall short of the correct conclusion that government itself is the problem.

The Mises and Austrian school is still a pro-State theory of economics. They say "government should adopt a sound monetary policy instead of an unsound monetary policy". They fall short of the truth, which is "Who needs a government?"

Agorism and Anarcho-Capitalism

The primary source most commonly cited is agorism.info. Agorism.info has good introductory material, but I'm already looking for more advanced topics. I also found TOLFA interesting. The Molinari Institute has a lot of interesting links.

The source with the most advanced material on agorism is Kevin Carson's The Mutualist Blog.

This link on the History of Money has a lot of interesting bits on how bankers have controlled the world's money supply for hundreds of years or longer. Unlike most other sources, it is very short and to the point. However, their recommended solution falls short of true agorism.

Freedomain is another good read. He doesn't update his blog often, but he has a lot of good stuff posted in the past.

Kevin Carson's Mutualist Blog - This is a great source. He is tough to read at times, but his content is great. He's the best source on agorism I've seen. I like to take his topics and present them in simpler language. He updates his blog sporadically, but he has a lot of great content. It's also worth reading his other books and articles, which are available from his mutualist.org website. I also like the way Kevin Carson frequently links back to his favorite older posts. Kevin Carson's Shared Items is also worth reading; it's a list of posts from other blogs that he finds interesting.

Kung-Fu Monkey. This blog is written by someone who works as a writer in the entertainment industry, which explains the high quality of writing. He sounds like a closet agorist, although he hasn't specifically mentioned that philosophy. This post on the Extrapolated Everyday Bull**** Comparison has promoted Kung-Fu Monkey from my hitlist to my "read regularly" list.

Redpillguy's Blog - His blog is relatively new, so it's hard to judge. He doesn't really update his blog that often. On the other hand, he frequently cites my content, and that's certainly the sort of thing I appreciate.

Tranarchism is another new blog. It's too soon to judge the content. On the other hand, anyone who heavily cites my stuff can't be all bad. It's too infrequently updated.

Wally Conger's Blog is another good read. However, he really has two separate blogs mixed together. He has a lot of good stuff on agorism and libertarianism. However, he also likes to talk about his favorite movies and TV shows a lot.

Blog HitlistThere are blogs I'm currently evaluating to see if they're worth a regular read. I currently manage my hitlist through Google Reader.

Honorable Mention

These blogs have some interesting content, but they don't make it into my regular reading rotation. If they improved their content or improved their posting frequency, then they would be in my regular reading list. I check back occasionally, and on a slow day I might read them.

Bill Rempel - He talks about finance and trading. He really dislikes the Federal Reserve. I'm not sure if he's come all the way to agorism yet, but perhaps he can be coaxed. He's guilty of my #1 blog pet peeve: A PARTIAL RSS FEED!

Bored Zhwazi - Has some nice content, but it really isn't updated that often. It's worth checking back once every month or two.